Kikuko Maruo (born 1953)

Landscape with Birds for flute and piano (Commissioned Works 2024)

 

Kikuko Maruo is a Japanese contemporary music composer. After graduating from Kobe College's Faculty of Music with a major in composition, she has taught at Kwansei Gakuin Junior College and other institutions, and has composed many instrumental, choral, and voice ensemble pieces. The commissioned work "Landscape with Birds" begins with an Aeolian tone played only on the headjoint of the flute. It is a work that seems to lead you into the mysterious space of the album itself. Particularly it is very interesting to see how special playing techniques were incorporated into the music that Kikuko Maruo created through her detailed dialogue with the performers. This piece depicts a background where birds are present, but also enjoy the world of Kikuko Maruo’s sound through her own words, such as "A landscape where birds are present, a landscape and space where birds seem to appear. The wind and the smell of plants, bamboo groves, clouds, and shining light. It is not a country, but a place called Earth."

 

 

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

LE MERLE NOIR (1951)

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Born in Vignon in the south of France, Messiaen's talent blossomed from an early age, and he entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11. From around 1930, he explored Indian and Greek rhythms and the sounds of birds, and influences of these began to appear in his works. This piece, "Le Merle Noir ", was created in 1951 from his deep fascination with bird sounds, and is filled with mysterious phrases and, in contrast, the strange and almost hysterical calls of birds. It is one of the most important compositions among repertoires for the flute.

 

Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

PARYSATIS, ACT II: LE ROSSIGNOL ET LA ROSE (1902)

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The French composer, Charles Camille Saint-Saëns, showed exceptional talent from an early age, entering the Paris Conservatory at the age of 13, and working as an organist after graduation. He subsequently worked as a freelance pianist and conductor. When he was young, he admired the pioneering musicians of the time, such as Liszt and Wagner, but he maintained a classical attitude, and even after his maturity he showed a tendency towards neoclassicism such as the works of Stravinsky. However he was conservative, devoting himself to French Baroque composers such as Rameau and Lully. He composed 12 pieces of incidental music for theatrical arts from 1850 to 1916, and the one featured on this CD premiered in 1902 to great acclaim. This is one of his incidental music pieces written based on past tales and forms, and the original piece was written for soprano and orchestra.

 

Theodor Blumer (1881-1964)

Aus der Tierwelt Op.57 A

III. Flug der Vogel nach dem Süden.

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Theodor Blumer was born in Dresden in 1881, and from 1931 he served as conductor of the Dresden Radio Symphony Orchestra and other musical organizations. As a composer, he composed piano solo pieces, sonatas for violin and flute, music for string orchestras, and chamber music. His work “From Animal Kingdom” for flute and piano consists of six pieces, with the titles: 1.The Fox Hunt, 2.The Swan, 3.Birds of Passage, 4.The Shepherd with His Flock, 5.The Gypsy with His Dancing Bear, 6.The Gazelle. The third movement of this piece depicts a migratory bird flying fast and purposefully to a warmer country before the arrival of winter, and the narrative quality expressed through the interplay between the flute and piano is also a highlight of this piece.

 

Olga Rayeva (born 1971)

Kalavinka-Bird (2011)

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Olga Rayeva was born in Moscow and studied under E.W. Denisov and V. Tarnopolsky at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Her works have been performed at numerous festivals by renowned ensembles and conductors, including the Arditi Quartet, Klangforum Vienna, Ensemble Modern, and the Schoenberg Ensemble. The "Kalavinka-Bird" is a Buddhist term for a mythical creature that lives in the Pure Land. It is said to have a sweet voice even before it hatches from its egg, and in paintings, temple murals, and ritual objects, the bird is depicted with the face of a beautiful woman, dancing and playing a flute. According to Rayeva,the Karavinka's song is a message of joy, tinged with sadness which is very similar to the Slavic myths of the sad bird Sirin and the joyful bird Alkonost, (both half bird and half woman). She also said that this work is meant in some way to be a message to her daughter. This piece was premiered in Japan, by this duo, in 2023.

 

Takashi Yoshimatsu (born 1953)

Digital Bird Suite (1982)

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Takashi Yoshimatsu was born in Tokyo and studied musical composition by himself. His 1980 piece "Elegy for the Crested Ibis" was an orchestral work that started his "Bird Series," and he has composed many bird pieces since then. His 1982 "Digital Bird Suite" was commissioned and premiered by Michio Kai. According to the composer's commentary, "It is set as a fictional suite from fictional music for a fictional ballet with a mechanical bird, the Digital Bird, as the main character." It is the composer's first work which he regards as “pop” rather than “serious “, and “digital”rather than “analog “, likening it to a departure from contemporary classical music to the light steps of a bird. 1.Bird-phobia 2.A Bird in the Twilight 3.Twitter Machine 4.Bird in the Noon 5.Bird Circuit

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